oster:
Only with horror you pronounce my name
To them.

{JOSABET.}

Can we conceal the history of our wrongs?
All know it, and you boast of it yourself.

{ATHALIAH.}

Yes, of my righteous rage, and I am proud
To avenge my parents on posterity.
My father and my brother saw I slaughtered;
My mother from her palace window hurled;
And even in one day murdered at once--
Dread sight!--more than twice twenty sons of kings:
And wherefore? To avenge some nameless prophets
Whom she had punished for their senseless frenzy:
And I, cold queen, and daughter without love,
Slave of a cowardly and frivolous folly,
Shall even not return to this blind rage
Insult for insult, death for every death,
And shall not treat all David's progeny
As Ahab's wretched remnant were by them!
Where should I be to-day, had I not had
A tenderness for my torn, strangled mother;
And, conquering my weakness, with my hand
Shedding in torrents my own people's blood,
Had not repressed your plots by that fierce blow!
At length, the inflexible vengeance of your God,
Betwixt our houses all alliance breaks:
David of me's in horror; and his sons,
Though of my blood, are strangers unto me.

{JOSABET.}

In all you have succeeded. Let God see
And judge.

{ATHALIAH.}

That God, a long time past, your only refuge,
Of what effect will be His prophecies?
Let Him produce that King, told to the nations,
That Son of David, your support, your hope--
But we shall meet again. Adieu, I go,
Quite satisfied. I wished to see: I have seen.

{ABNER (_to Josabet_).}

I promised you; and I return the charge
That you committed to me.

_Scenes VIII and IX._

{JOAD, JOSABET, JOAS, ZACHARIAH, ABNER, SALOMITH,
LEVITES, AND THE CHOIR.}

{JOSABET (_to Joad_).}

My lord, Did you o'erhear that haughty queen?

{JOAD.}

I heard the whole, and I bewailed your anguish.
To lend you aid, these Levites and myself,
Were close at hand, resolved to die with you.

(To Joas.)
May God watch over you whose courage, child,
Has just returned this noble testimony
Unto His name! I recognize, dear Abner,
This important service: bear in mind
The hour when Joad expects you. We, whose sight
This